Alphabet, Amazon top LinkedIn's top companies list

Alphabet, the company that owns Google, has been ranked in LinkedIn's top companies list.

Author:
Tegna

Published:
1:23 PM EDT May 19, 2017

Google's parent company Alphabet piqued the most interest from job seekers in 2017, placing it atop LinkedIn's list of top U.S. companies.

For the second straight year, the social network analyzed billions of actions taken by its more than 500 million users to determine which companies drew the most interest.

What sets Alphabet apart, explained LinkedIn, are "the opportunity and resources employees are given to tackle massive problems, stretching from creating self-driving to impeding extremism."

Researchers considered a number of factors, including how many people view and apply for jobs at a company, the number of users who want to connect with a company's employees and how long people are staying at their job.

Alphabet, run by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, is actually a collective of companies with different aims ranging from advertising and smart-home devices, to internet infrastructure and self-driving cars. The company earned $21 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2016 alone and has 72,000 employees.

Big companies like Alphabet, the study found, are rampant on the American list, where the average company listed about 66,000 employees. No. 2 Amazon had the largest workforce on the list with 341,000 people.

LinkedIn said companies on the list shared other similarities, such as closing the gender pay gap, honoring work-life balance, weathering bad press and not being afraid to take political positions.

Amazon's innovation set it apart, notes LinkedIn. The company that has changed the online retail market has now won three Academy Awards, successfully delivered a package using a drone and opened up a checkout-less grocery store.

There's good news for job seekers, LinkedIn said Amazon aims to hire 100,000 new full-time positions in the U.S. over the next year and a half. The company also offers six weeks of paid leave to spouses or partners of employees who don't receive parental leave at their job. Plus, Amazon's corporate headquarters is dog-friendly with an on-site dog park and free treats.

Google topped last year's list, followed by Salesforce and Facebook, Apple and Amazon. LinkedIn Editor-in-chief Daniel Roth said job seekers are paying attention to the actions companies take.

"The way companies conduct business and deal with long-term public turmoil impacts their reputation and, as a result, our members respond through their actions on LinkedIn," he said.

Rounding out the top 10 was a who's who of internet innovators, media and entertainment companies. The full list can be found here: